That now makes for two major telecommunication companies in the US that will offer 5G networks in 2018, as Verizon said late last year that it would also be rolling out its 5G network.

Verizon and AT&T haven't explicitly stated the speeds we can expect when their 5G networks arrive, but we know that they will be much faster the 4G LTE mobile networks we have today. And they even have the potential to be faster than wired internet connections, too.

When the 5G wireless standard hits the mainstream, our mobile and home internet speeds have the potential to be so fast that we'll be downloading 4K movies, games, apps, and any other large form of content at a fraction of the time.

What is 5G?

It's the upcoming evolution of wireless 4G LTE, which is mostly used today for wireless mobile networks. It offers incredibly fast wireless communication that can be used to transmit all sorts of data. It won't replace cables entirely, but for some applications and industries, it could replace the need for them.

Apart from fast mobile networks, 5G will also be used to deliver internet to your home. Its speed is also suited for upcoming technologies, such as providing a continuous stream of data required for many self-driving-car systems.

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How fast will 5G be?

At Mobile World Congress 2017, Samsung showcased its 5G Home Routers, which achieved speeds of up to 4 gigabits per second, according to PCMag. That's 500 mega bytes per second, which could let you download a 50 GB game in under two minutes, or a 100 GB 4K movie in under four minutes.

To give you an idea of how fast that is, the average internet speed in the US as of 2016 was 55 mega bits per second, which translates to a woeful 6.5 mega bytes per second.

As PCMag's Sascha Segan pointed out, however, Samsung's router was right next to the transmitting 5G cell during the demonstration, meaning those speeds are probably possible only in a perfect scenario — where the 5G router is extremely close to the 5G radio cell without any interference, obstacles, or network congestion.

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It's unlikely we'll get "full" 5G speeds all the time.

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Still, even with 50% of that performance, we could be experiencing 2 Gbps speeds at home.

And even 1 Gbps — 25% of the perfect scenario — would be great as compared with the US internet speed average.

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Why isn't superfast "gigabit" internet more common?

Gigabit internet speeds aren't new, but they're extremely rare.

There are just a handful of internet service providers that offer gigabit internet in a few parts of the US, largely because it's incredibly expensive to lay down infrastructure. It involves digging up roads to install miles of fiber-optic cables and then connecting them to your specific address.

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5G will face fewer obstacles than wired internet, thus making it easier to distribute superfast internet.

Starry

The best part about wireless 5G millimeter waves is that ISPs don't have to build costly infrastructure to deliver those insanely fast speeds.

Instead, your internet service will be delivered wirelessly through the air, much like your mobile network for your phone.

Any company would gladly deliver better services if there were an easier, cheaper way to do so.

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How does it work?

Samsung's 5G Home Router will use an antenna, installed outside of one of your home's windows, that's connected to a WiFi router inside your home. That antenna will pick up one of 5G's "millimeter wave" wireless signals transmitted from millimeter-wave cell towers.

We've seen this technology before from a startup called Starry, which announced this month that it would roll out its internet service in Los Angeles and Washington, DC.

Starry also said it would expand its service to 14 additional markets over the next year, including New York, Cleveland, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Seattle, Detroit, Atlanta, Indianapolis, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Miami, and Minneapolis.

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Hurry up and wait.

You can't buy it yet, but 5G technology is here, and now it's a matter of when it will become mainstream.

We're essentially waiting for ISPs to begin rolling out 5G. At the moment, Verizon and AT&T have both said they will do so later this year.

So far, no smartphones support 5G because there aren't any mainstream 5G networks to which they can connect. Once these networks begin rolling out, we'll surely see smartphones with 5G support.

As for home internet, there's no indication of how much 5G routers and other equipment — those or internet plans — will cost. You can get a 500 Mbps plan from Verizon Fios now, but it's $275 a month.